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Posted December 3, 2012 06:57 pm - Updated January 22, 2016 03:38 pm

EDITORIAL: Fiscal cliff: Obama plays 'chicken'

HOUSE SPEAKER John Boehner said Sunday that he was “flabbergasted” that President Obama wants Republicans to automatically cave in on higher taxes to avoid going over the fiscal cliff by the end of this year.

He shouldn’t be so stunned.

The president has said all along — even before a slim majority of voters re-elected him Nov. 6 — that he wants a tax hike. The only question was how much.

What’s really outrageous is that the Obama administration is using the year-end cliff deadline to up the ante. The president is now asking for another $1.6 trillion over the next 10 years. Mr. Boehner, who’s negotiating for the Republican-controlled House, has offered half of that, $800 billion in new revenue.

In exchange, the president is offering $800 billion in entitlement cuts. In other words, for every dollar the Mr. Obama would cut, he wants an additional $2 in new taxes for new spending. Talk about nerve.

Such brinkmanship is another example of the president’s belief that a crisis is a terrible thing to waste.

“I was flabbergasted,” Mr. Boehner told “Fox News Sunday.” “The president’s idea of negotiation is: Roll over and do what I ask.”

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, who is the go-between for the White House, stated flatly on ABC’s “This Week” that tax rates “are going to have to go up.” He added that “there’s no responsible way we can govern this country at a time of enormous threat, and risk, and challenge ... with those low rates in place for future generations.”

Among the proposals that Mr. Obama is pushing is raising the top two tax rates from the current 33 percent and 35 percent to 36 percent and 39.6 percent. But that’s not all.

The president, while raising taxes on one hand, wants to dish out more stimulus spending with his other hand — another $200 billion for unemployment benefits, training and infrastructure projects. While improving this nation’s transportation system can be a wise investment, spending billions more on benefits is a no-go. That’s what got this nation into trouble in the first place.

Indeed, the president is playing a game of smoke and mirrors. He’s willing to cut Medicare and other programs, but the money saved would go out to pay more benefits elsewhere.

Hence, Mr. Obama isn’t giving up anything in exchange for Republicans agreeing to hike taxes. No wonder Mr. Boehner is flustered. He has a right to be. It’s as if the president is playing a game of “chicken” with House Republicans. He’s willing to take the nation right to the edge of the cliff, if not over it, to get what he wants.

Democrats in Congress who are cheering on the president should seriously ask themselves if they want to go along for this dangerous ride.

The president has four more years in office. He’s thinking about his legacy, which includes reshaping the American economy to one that relies on more government control and less reliance on the private sector. Do all Democrats want that, too?

Many economists believe that the automatic tax hikes and spending cuts that will come, assuming the nation goes over the cliff, will plunge the country into recession. Everyone in Congress will pay a price if that happens, including Democrats who control the Senate.

What’s needed is big cuts in entitlement spending. Clearly, that’s unpopular with elected officials in both parties. But the idea that Mr. Obama might fold on tax cuts without a fight? Now that’s flabbergasting.